Q & A

About Elections & Political Districts

Q.

What is an election cycle?

A.

The period of time that candidates raise money for any given election. The cycle’s length varies, depending on the length of the term of the office sought. For example, the 2012 election cycle for a two-year state house seat includes money raised both in 2012 and 2011. Election cycles for 4–6 year terms encompass the year in which the election was held, as well as the preceding applicable years.

Q.

What is a district?

A.

States are divided into geographical districts (legislative, congressional, etc). Generally, only voters who reside within the geographical bounds of a district are permitted to vote for seats within those districts. Examples of districts include municipal, legislative, and congressional.

Q.

What is the difference between a federal, state, and local candidate?

A.

Federal candidates run for president and vice president of the United States, and Congress (U.S. Senate and House of Representatives).

State candidates run for state offices, such as governor, lieutenant governor, state high court justices and appellate court judges, state legislators, and other statewide offices such as attorney general, secretary of state, and more.

Local candidates run for county and city councils, lower court judges (courts of limited or general jurisdiction), mayor, and other local offices.

The Institute began to collect local data in late 2013, starting with Los Angeles and New York City. Stay tuned.

Q.

What is a ballot measure?

A.

Ballot measures are proposals voted on by the electorate, to enact or repeal laws or constitutional amendments. Committees raise money to support or oppose the measures.

Q.

What kind of elections are there?

A.

Convention: A meeting of delegates of a political party at the local, state, or national level to select candidates for office.

Party Primary: A preliminary election in which voters of each party nominate candidates for office, party officers, etc.

Open Primary: A primary election in which all candidates are listed on one ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

Party Primary Runoff: A primary election in which all candidates are listed on one ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

Open Primary Runoff: An additional primary election that is held because an earlier one did not result in a winner.

General Election: A regularly scheduled election in which voters elect office-holders. Typically, general election candidates are first chosen in a primary election.

General Runoff Election: An additional general election held because an earlier one did not result in a winner.

Retention Election: Election in which the incumbent is not running against an opponent. Votes are cast "yes" to retain, or "no" to not retain.

Q.

What is an incumbent?

A.

An incumbent is an elected official currently in office. “Incumbency status” on this website indicates whether a candidate is an incumbent seeking reelection, or is running for an open seat.

About the Data

Q.

Why are negative amounts listed?

A.

Negative amounts are typically either loan repayments or refunded contributions. We include these to ensure that the contributor’s or lender’s total reflects the net amount actually given during that election cycle. For example, if a contributor gave $200 initially, and the candidate returned $50, the contributor gave a net amount of $150.

Q.

I wanted to see what John X Doe gave in a state. Why is he listed multiple ways?

A.

In standardizing the contributors in our database, we prioritize large donors and industries first and then work down the list. The donors in our database will never be 100 percent standardized due to many factors, including lack of information about the donor, as well as our time and resource constraints. Not all states require information to be disclosed about the contributors, such as their address, occupation, or employer. Further, contribution records vary in the quality of the content. Absent adequate information, it is often impossible for us to know if John Doe is the same person as John X Doe or JX Doe.

Q.

What is “Non-Contribution Income?”

A.

Non-Contribution Income is money received by campaign committees that is not a contribution, such as deposit refunds, interest earned, cashing in of CDs, and so forth.

Q.

What is an “economic sector”? An “industry”?

A.

The Institute uses a hierarchical coding system that is closely modeled on the federal government's SIC Codes to classify contributors by sector, industry, and business: 20 sectors are divided into 146 industries, further segmented into 438 business categories. A general description within a Sector-Industry-Business example is: the sector of "Energy & Natural Resources" has an industry called "Mining" and a business category of "Coal Mining."

Q.

What are unitemized contributions?

A.

Those that fall below a state's reporting threshold for disclosing identifying information about the donor. For example: a contributor who gives $60 in a state where the disclosure reporting threshold is $100 is not required to be identified by name. The $60 is instead lumped in with other contributions that are below $100, and then classified as “unitemized.”

Q.

How far back does the Institute’s data go?

A.

The Institute has contributions data for candidates running for state office in all 50 states since 2000 (though data for some state races extends back to 1989). We began collecting ballot measure contributions data in 2004, and independent spending data for some state elections in 2006. We recently added contributions data for candidates running for federal office, and some local offices beginning in 2011-2012.

Q.

How current is your data?

A.

The answer varies, largely dependent on the length of time between the reports being filed and the reports being made available for the Institute to collect. In addition, the Institute needs time to input these reports into our system -- that also varies, and is dependent on the quality of the agencies’ data and our own available resources.

Q.

Why don't you show 100 percent of the reports collected?

A.

We show how many of the required reports we have collected for each candidate or committee. Amendments to these reports, however, are not always captured, depending on how long after the original filings the amendments are submitted and if they can be identified as amendments.

Q.

Where do you get your information?

A.

Every candidate or committee is required to file campaign finance regular reports with their respective federal, state, or local agency. The Institute compiles its comprehensive campaign finance data from those agencies. Each disclosure office is the official record for all disclosure data. Federal rules apply only to federal candidates. Each state and locality operates under their own set of rules.

About Campaign Finance

Q.

How has Citizens United v. FEC affected campaign finance?

A.

The United States Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allows corporations and unions unlimited spending on communications that support or oppose candidates who run for federal office, as long as they don’t coordinate with those candidates. This ruling led 24 states to dismantle their corporate and union spending limits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Q.

Can corporations contribute directly to candidates?

A.

Corporations cannot make contributions to candidates who run for federal office. Some states allow corporations to make direct contributions to candidates who run for state office; other states prohibit it. The regulations also vary among elections for local office.

Q.

What is a lobbyist?

A.

A lobbyist is an individual who receives compensation from clients or lobbying firms and who persuades decision-makers to support or vote for policies that favor the lobbyist's client(s). Some special interests retain lobbying firms, others have lobbyists working in-house.

Q.

What’s a PAC?

A.

Typically, this name applies to those committees formed by business, labor, or other groups to raise money to support or oppose campaigns of political candidates.

Q.

What is an electioneering communication?

A.

One of two types of independent spending. Electioneering communications clearly intend to influence an election, but stop short of explicitly telling its audience how to vote.

Q.

What is a contributor?

A.

A contributor is an individual, a corporation, or a group that makes a contribution to a political campaign.

Q.

What is campaign finance?

A.

Campaign finance refers to all funds raised or spent in order to promote candidates, political parties, or policies in elections, referendums, initiatives, party activities, and party organizations. It includes direct contributions as well as independent spending.

Q.

What is a campaign finance report?

A.

A report that is filed with the respective governmental agency by candidates and committees that details their income and expenditures. The reporting schedules and requirements vary dramatically from state to state and among the different levels of governmental jurisdictions.

About the Institute

Q.

Where does the Institute gets its funding?

A.

The Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization supported primarily by charitable foundations that support open access to public information. See our list of foundation funders here. Additional income is earned from research contracts, data licensing agreements, data sales, and donor-profile enhancement projects; and from donations from concerned individuals. The Institute does not receive financial support from government, corporations, or corporate foundations; and does not accept contributions from political parties or candidate committees.

Q.

What is the Institute’s view on "X" issue?

A.

The Institute does not support any candidate, political party, or issue. The Institute does advocate for strong disclosure to ensure that the public has the information they need regarding how much money is spent on elections and by whom.

Miscellaneous

Q.

What is an independent expenditure?

A.

One of two types of independent spending. For federal elections, independent expenditures are those that expressly advocate for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate and are not made in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, the candidate or the campaign. This is typically true in state elections as well, but the definition varies among the states.

Q.

What is independent spending?

A.

Money spent on communications with the public without coordinating or consulting with the target. This includes both direct advocacy communications (aka independent expenditure) as well as more indirect electioneering communications.

Q.

Are there limits to how much contributors can give?

A.

The answer varies, depending on the laws of a given jurisdiction. For example, races for all federal offices have contribution limits. All but four states have placed some limits on contributions in state elections. See more detail here on contribution limits to state elections.

Q.

What is a campaign contribution?

A.

A campaign contribution is money (or in-kind support) given directly to candidates, political parties, or ballot measure committees.

Look at this!

Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.Copyright 2013 National Institute on Money in State Politics | All Rights Reserved